COMMENTARY: Over the last few weeks, the Los Angeles Kings have been involved in two incidents involving blows to the head of a player. Both times, the player who was hit suffered an injury, and in each case, a player was suspended. Perhaps even worse, both incidents have shined a bright light on the fact that it isn’t just fans who don’t know the rules, but apparently, National Hockey League players, coaches and general managers don’t either, and the fault for that falls squarely on the shoulders of the NHL.

LOS ANGELES AND EL SEGUNDO, CA — Almost one month ago, Los Angeles Kings winger Dustin Brown was suspended two games, without pay, for elbowing Minnesota Wild forward Jason Pominville at 10:04 of the second period in a game at Minnesota on April 23, a 2-1 Wild victory.

No penalty was called on the play.

Just prior to, and immediately after the decision by National Hockey League Senior Vice President of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan was announced, the vast majority of Kings fans were up in arms about the decision, claiming it was a clean hit, and that Brown was a victim of circumstance because of Pominville’s positioning as he approached Brown (slightly low).

VIDEO INTERVIEWS: Includes full video interviews with Los Angeles Kings forwards Dustin Brown and Brad Richardson, and head coach Darryl Sutter that are available only from FrozenRoyaltyNHL on YouTube. Also includes video of the National Hockey League’s announcement and explanation for their decision to suspend San Jose Sharks forward Raffi Torres.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — On the eve of Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinal series between the Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks (tonight, 7:00 PM PDT, Staples Center; Kings lead the series, 1-0), virtually everyone was focused on the late-second period hit by Sharks forward Raffi Torres on Kings center Jarret Stoll.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — The Los Angeles Kings are heading into Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the San Jose Sharks on May 14 (7:00 PM PDT, Staples Center) knowing that were not at the top of their game in the first round of the playoffs against the St. Louis Blues. To be sure, the Kings have not looked much like the team that won the 2012 Stanley Cup Championship.

“I don’t know if we’ve played like that yet,” said defenseman Drew Doughty. “I think we still have a long way to go. We were OK in the St. Louis series. We weren’t great. We didn’t play to the best of our abilities, so we’ve got a lot to work on, and we’ve got to start doing it in this series.”

“Our defensive zone coverage, composure with the puck under fast, quick pressure, heavy pressure, like we saw in the first round, I don’t think we handled it too well,” said center Jarret Stoll. “We need to be a lot better in that area. We relied on our goaltender too much. He was great, he was awesome for us, but we need to be better in that area, and just bearing down, offensively. We had some chances that went by. We scored some timely goals, but I think we could’ve put more pucks in the net, and we didn’t.”

LOS ANGELES — Four days after the Los Angeles Kings were eliminated in six games from the first round of 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs by the San Jose Sharks, the Kings dressing room at Staples Center has probably been cleaned out, not to be used (at least, not by the Kings), until next season.

Despite losing in six games, the Kings came close to, not just extending the series to a seventh game, but to advancing to the second round. Indeed, when they were on top of their game, their forecheck, defensive zone coverage and goaltending gave the Sharks fits.

“We had opportunities to win this series,” Kings right wing and team captain Dustin Brown lamented. “We had a 4-0 lead at home in Game 3, and two other overtime games. We were right there.” Read more of this post

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